Theft and illegal abandonment of vehicles are widespread problems in society. Identification numbers such as a body number and an engine number other than a license plate are recorded in a vehicle. When the license plate is removed, it is still possible to identify the owner from the identification numbers.
However, since the relation between the identification numbers of the vehicle and the user is not recorded in a database, matching the two with each other is very troublesome. Since the body number and the engine number are stamped on the body frame and the engine main unit, respectively, in many cases, they cannot be read due to dirt or corrosion. In such a case, the owner cannot be identified from the vehicle.
With a different managed target, a technique for providing product tags incorporating an IC chip on all products in order to manage products in stock or sales is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 11-133860. An identifier specific to each product is written into the product tag and is read by an exclusive tag reader to permit centralized product management.
On the other hand, when asking for disposal of industrial waste, a discarding company describes the kind, quantity, shape and assembled form of the industrial waste, the name of a collection or transportation company, the name of a disposal company, the place of final disposal, and the instructions of handling in an “industrial waste management tag (manifest)”, takes and manages the flow of the industrial waste for itself, and checks the disposal of the waste. Introduction of such a manifest system is advancing.
A method for managing products using an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is gradually becoming accepted. This is a method for attaching an IC tag (also called a wireless tag or an electronic tag) as a small tag incorporating an IC (integrated circuit) and means transmitting and receiving a radio signal to a product or its container to read information for identifying the type of the product and the product individual from the IC tag in the distribution process of the product, and managing the places and the types of products in stock using a computer.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2002-169858 discloses a system technique in which an IC tag is kept in a fixed state from production to disposal of a product such as a vehicle, to read information specific to the product stored in the IC from a computer, thereby managing the product from production to disposal. The system includes any one of stock management, shipping management, distribution management, maintenance management, and customer management from production to disposal. The patent document discloses a technique (in FIGS. 2 and 3, and in the seventh paragraph) for fixing an IC tag to a chassis frame made of a steel plate and a technique (in FIG. 5, and in the twentieth paragraph) for fixing an IC tag to an electromagnetic shielding plate (in FIG. 2, and in the ninth paragraph) electromagnetically shielding an IC tag antenna from a chassis frame made of a steel plate, the side of the chassis frame, the bottom of a monocoque body or a bumper.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 5-221352 discloses a product management system for continuously managing a product with a tag fixed from its production to disposal without losing the tag. The system can write once information specific to the product into an IC chip to manage the processes of from production to disposal of the product using a computer.
A technique for detecting theft of a product using a theft detection device for product management exists. For example, in Published Japanese Translation No. 2001-511270 of the PCT International Application, a wireless transmission unit for theft detection is provided on a plastic fastener fixing a tag to a product to detect electromagnetic waves outputted at the time of theft by a sensor, thereby detecting the theft.
To solve the above-described problems, identification numbers may be desirably written into all vehicles so as to be easily and reliably read at all times. To spread such a manifest system, it is desirable to register the contents recorded to the manifest as electronic data into a vehicle and to read them easily.
To prevent illegal disposal of engine oil and consumable parts other than the recorded items to the manifest, it is desirable to register a replacement record of the consumable parts and a maintenance record as electronic data into a vehicle and to read them easily. However, these pieces of information have been all recorded into a record sheet so that effective use thereof has been difficult.
By application of a product tag of the prior art to vehicle management, when the product tag is provided on each vehicle and various records or information can be registered thereinto, its management becomes easy. When the product tag is provided on a product displayed in a store such as a supermarket, it is removed after the product is bought. Being provided on a motorcycle, the product tag is taken out outside. It must withstand use under more severe conditions.
The tag provided on a vehicle is accessed by plural companies such as a dealer, a repair company, a maintenance company and a disposal company and can be subject to falsification or an act of destruction by a malicious third party. In the prior art product tag, taking it outside is not considered and forming the product tag with resistance to falsification or an act of destruction is not sufficient to avoid adverse environmental effects. This prior art product tag thus cannot be applied directly to vehicle management.
Data of a tag equipped in a vehicle are frequently read or written. When the reading distance between the tag and a reader is long, a radio output of the tag and the reader must be increased. The tag cannot be smaller and an output of the reader cannot be lowered.
When an IC tag is fixed to a chassis frame of a vehicle using the above prior art, the overall chassis frame is covered by the metal body of the vehicle. A read/write signal (an electromagnetic wave) from/into the IC tag is shielded by the body. In order to read and write information of the IC tag, an IC tag read/write device must be brought under the body so as to be near to the chassis, which is very inconvenient.
The durability of the IC tag is poor under severe conditions under the body. The load of the management cost is large.
The above sensor outputs an electromagnetic wave having a resonance frequency to the tag, and a transponder provided in the tag receives and resonates the electromagnetic wave to notify theft detection to the sensor. The electromagnetic wave transmitted and received here is not affected by the existence of plastic. No reading failure can occur under the assumption conditions of the above invention.
A metal part reflects electromagnetic waves. When a product is constructed of a metal part, reading failure of product information stored in a tag occurs on the sensor side and the tag information cannot be read as expected.
To solve the problems described above, a first object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle equipped with an IC tag which can withstand use in a severe environment such as outdoors and is excellent in resistance to falsification or an act of destruction, and to provide a management system thereof.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle which can improve the durability or reliability of an IC tag installed on a body.